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Israel army publishes fake image of huge “Gaza shopping mall”

An enormous shopping mall the Israeli army claims is in the Gaza Strip. (Source: IDF Blog)

In one of its periodic efforts to deny the devastating effects of its siege of Gaza, the Israeli occupation army published a blog post on 12 August claiming that Palestinians in Gaza are “out in force, enjoying themselves in sparkling new malls, beautiful beaches and hotels, and doing their shopping in pristine grocery stores and markets heaving with fresh produce.”

The “IDF blog” includes the impressive photo above of a shopping mall where Palestinians in Gaza are supposedly shopping for the latest imported fashions.

I showed the photo to The Electronic Intifada’s correspondent in Gaza, Rami Almeghari. His reaction: “I can assure you that there is no such mall in Gaza.” Rami is quite right.

That’s one of the ways the Israeli blockade creates dependency: While Gaza industry and agriculture are devastated by the siege, Israel is happy enough to see its own companies profiting from people in Gaza, siphoning off what little income they have, whether from work, humanitarian aid or remittances abroad, by selling them Israeli goods.

Poverty and dependency are the real effects of siege

But Israel is much more restrictive when it comes to supplies that meet basic needs and could allow Gaza to move out of dependency. There is, for example, a shortage of 250 schools for Gaza’s children, which cannot be built due to the lack of building supplies.

And the reality is that while there is food in Gaza, “severe poverty has increased over years of closure and because of travel restrictions,” Gisha, an Israeli nongovermental organization that monitors the siege, noted in a recent factsheet.

More than 70 percent of the Gaza population receives some form of humanitarian aid, compared with one third in the year 2000.

By contrast, in 2007, the year before the siege began to bite, more than 5,000 trucks were allowed out of Gaza. In 2001 it was 15,000.

Cynical propaganda

The Israeli army’s cynical propaganda is supposed to distract people from the fact that the vast majority of people in Gaza live in deep poverty and a very precarious economic situation, without electricity for 8-12 hours per day, and depend on humanitarian aid, due to Israel.

The lesson: learn the facts and don’t be taken in by Israeli army fabrications.

Update: 15 August

Following the publication of this post, the Israeli army removed the photo and told Israel’s Haaretz that it had been a mistake made in “good faith.”

It also tweeted out an acknowledgment that the photo was “incorrectly sourced” – though without noting that its source was an Islamophobic hate site peddling fabrications and anti-Palestinian propaganda.

Correction: A photo included in our recent article about Gaza was incorrectly sourced. It has been removed. http://t.co/THUQEgNcVG

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Comments

Wow....I am speechless. I wonder why I didn't recognise the photograph as coming from Suria KLCC, a place that I frequently hang out on weekends. As a Malaysian, I am truly offended and upset that the Zionist entity had used a photo of a shopping mall IN MY COUNTRY to smear and disparage the Gazans who are under a brutal army siege!

It is nearly impossible to avoid Israeli goods in Gaza. IF we refused to accept the goods Gaza would be in a very desperate situation. Sometimes there is no other choice but to purchase the Israeli product -would you let your children go hungry or be sick? I hope this changes soon but it is the reality here.

Surely it would be preferable to buy Egyptian goods in Egyptian currency than to buy Israeli goods in Israeli currency. Egypt is an Arab country after all. Or as you say, use a Palestinian currency that Egyptians could then use to buy produce from Gaza.

But you say there is no trade/open border with Egypt? Why is that? Surely it is more open than the border with Israel??

"According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israel has allowed a total of 94 trucks out of Gaza in 2013 – that’s about a dozen a month from a population of almost 1.7 million people. Insignificant.

By contrast, in 2007, the year before the siege began to bite, more than 5,000 trucks were allowed out of Gaza. In 2001 it was 15,000."

The motto of the Mossad is, I'm pretty sure, "By way of deception". This clearly applies to the Israeli Army as well. Deception, spin, relentless settlement building, a brutal occupation, and apartheid, is what we get from Israel all the time. They have succeeded in getting the US and Canada to be their benefactors and protectors as well. Shame on us.

By the way, the Israeli army removed the photos again( slideshows "4. Your local food stand to grab a bite to eat" and "6. …And out on the town to see some Gaza nightlife").
I don't know when they did it...